• SB 529 (Leno) would require fast food restaurants to use food packaging material that is compatible with local recycling and composting infrastructure. CAW Executive Director Mark Murray testified that the materials may look deceptively similar even though some are recyclable/compostable and others are not.

• SB 254 (Hancock and Correa) will require mattress manufacturers to develop and implement a statewide recycling program for used mattresses. This would be the first comprehensive mattress recycling legislation in the nation. Read Senator Hancock’s press release here.

All three of these bills will now move on to Senate Appropriations Committee.

• AB 513 (Frazier) which expands the market for using recycled tires in road paving projects, and AB 1022 (Eggman), which expands the market for CRT glass, both passed out of Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Monday with bipartisan support. Next stop is the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

The remainder of CAW’s priority recycling bills are coming up in Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Monday, April 29 at 1:30 p.m.:

• AB 1001 (Gordon) will expand California’s hugely successful Beverage Container Recycling Law (the Bottle Bill) by increasing the recycling of all beverages regardless of container type. It will close loopholes and inconsistencies, while increasing clarity and enforcement of current rules to support California businesses, jobs, and recycling.

• AB 323 (Chesbro) requires businesses that generate a lot of food scraps or yard debris to sign up for recycling of this material. In addition, the bill will finally eliminate state policies that have become perverse incentives for landfilling organic waste that should be returned to the soil.

• The California Air Resources Board just released its Three Year Investment Plan for using money raised pursuant to AB 32. The plan clearly identifies the importance of investing in recycling to meet the state’s greenhouse gas targets and suggests allocating funding to composting and anaerobic digestion in the coming year.

• According to an analysis by CalRecycle, the state can generate upwards of 100,000 new jobs from implementing CAW-sponsored AB 341, which sets a 75% recycling target.